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1 day ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
When it comes to aspirational education models, Finland used to be all the rage. For years, policymakers and journalists flocked through Helsinki Airport in search of the elixir that fuelled the country’s success in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).
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2 days ago | 
tes.com | Dan Worth |Henry Hepburn |Emma Seith
The annual Council of British International Schools (COBIS) Conference has drawn to a close after three action-packed days in London. Tes was on the ground throughout the main conference, attending talks and chatting to delegates. As ever, there was a raft of interesting discussions, debates, insights and ideas shared - from the small-scale practical ways leaders are tackling issues to thematic concepts shaping future decisions and directions in the sector.
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1 week ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
Artificial intelligence (AI) should be kept out of early years and treated with great caution in primaries, a digital learning expert has told independent school leaders. AI makes so many mistakes that it would be dangerous to rely on it when children are encountering critical concepts for the first time, said Professor Judy Robertson, chair in digital learning at the University of Edinburgh.
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1 month ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
Doorstep-sized reports on education are a speciality of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). While crammed with potentially useful data and insight, the sheer volume of information can be daunting - and labour intensive for those daring to venture in.
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1 month ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
Bedford School has become the latest independent school to venture into the international schools market, announcing that it will open a school in Mohali, northern India, in April 2026. Bedford School Mohali will be located on the outskirts of Chandigarh, and - notably, given that the school in the UK is all boys - will be an all-girls’ school, open to those aged 4 to 18.
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1 month ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
Metacognition - often summed up as “thinking about how we think” - has become an increasingly prominent concept in schools around the world over recent years. Often the focus with metacognition has been on older students, but a new research project from an international schools group is applying it to the earliest years of formal education. Nord Anglia Education is running Flag Time for children aged 3 to 6, with the aim of helping them to ”understand how they think and learn best”.
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2 months ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
This week, Northern Ireland’s education minister, Paul Givan, launched a “strategy for education excellence”. TransformED promises to “transform” teaching and learning in Northern Ireland, and puts forward a 10-point plan. Here are the 10 priorities it sets out:1. CurriculumThe Northern Ireland curriculum will be redesigned to “ensure every child enjoys an ambitious and knowledge-rich curriculum that develops their learning in a well-sequenced and explicit manner”. 2.
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2 months ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
School support staff are facing “unacceptable” levels of violence, a Scottish education minister has admitted. The comments from Graeme Day came after MSPs heard “shocking” evidence of pupil behaviour that support staff are dealing with. Today in the Scottish Parliament, Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy asked what plans the Scottish government had to review the experience of support staff in schools.
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2 months ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
There should not be an outright nationwide ban on smartphones in Welsh schools, according to a report from the Senedd’s Petitions Committee today. Instead, the Welsh government is being told to produce clear guidance and a robust framework to allow teachers to set their own rules in schools. The report was produced following a petition signed by nearly 3,000 people that called for a ban in schools, except in exceptional circumstances.
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2 months ago | 
tes.com | Henry Hepburn
The number of schools in Scotland sharing a headteacher has risen sharply, according to figures highlighted by the Scottish Conservatives. The figures supplied by education secretary Jenny Gilruth - in response to a written question from her Tory opposite number - reveal that while 134 schools shared a head with at least one other school in 2007, that number had grown to 469 by 2023.
